Hasta La Gadget!

Hey Google Glass Explorers, Google thinks you’re keen. Really, they do.

So much so in fact that the company has been quietly working on an updated version of the Glass hardware, and those of you who shelled out $1,500 to be among the first to support the project will be able to swap your existing units for the second revision for free.

Of course, Google Glass is still a ways off from its general launch date – expect it to land some time in 2014 on some sort of Google barge – so naturally Google is gearing up to expand its pool of guinea pigs Explorers. To that end, existing Explorers will have 14 days to choose three acquaintances who are worthy of paying $1,500 for Google Glass.

But let’s back up for a moment. What exactly makes this new iteration so special? So far it seems like a pretty incremental upgrade – unless you’re like me and wear honest-to-goodness specs everyday. Google’s Glass team has confirmed on (where else?) its Google+ page that this version will be able to be fitted with “future lines” of prescription lenses. It’s also going to pack a mono earbud, presumably because the existing bone conducting speaker system isn’t exactly the loudest thing you’ll ever hear.

With any luck, Google will have tweaked the internals a bit too, as the existing loadout is getting pretty long in the tooth. In case you’ve forgotten, it sports a TI OMAP4430 chipset and 1GB of RAM, which essentially means that in an age of incredibly high-powered components in smartphones, current Glass owners are walking around with the equivalent of a Galaxy Nexus on their heads.

And in case you were curious, here’s a copy of the email Google is sending out to eligible Explorers, just so you know what to look out for:

Being part of the Glass Explorer program is pretty insane (good insane): let’s face it, using cutting edge technology that changes every month requires a certain sense of adventure. We’re looking for more Explorers like you to be part of the program, so we’ve opened up a few more spots and this time, you decide who gets in. We want you to invite three people to join the Explorer Program, people who you believe would make great Glass Explorers.

You have 14 days to invite 3 of the best potential Explorers you know to buy Glass.
Just a reminder that all Glass Explorers must:

• be a US resident
• be 18 years or older
• purchase Glass
• provide a U.S. based shipping address OR pick up the device in New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: thank you for all your feedback and support. It’s because of you that Glass has come this far, and we’re truly grateful.

Folks, the rather dour line drawing that you can see in the image above is the very first glimpse of Google’s wearable computing project as it swings through the FCC’s underground facility. The Google Glass Explorer Edition hardware, promised to arrive this year, is carrying a Broadcom 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g WiFi radio that’s been paired with a Bluetooth 4.0 + LE module. We’ve seen a reference to an “integral vibrating element that provides audio to the user via contact with the user’s head,” which we presume relates to the bone conduction patent we saw earlier this month. The filing also reveals that the testing laboratory involved used the conduction technology to view video with audio. As the commission is now making the paperwork public, it can only mean that it’s judged the unit, with the product code “XEB,” to be safe for human consumption — which means customers 782 and 788 might be expecting something special in the mail very shortly.

Filed under: Wearables, Google

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Source: FCC